


Zombies, Nick Burkhart

by GrimmsterJ



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Diana Shenanigans, F/M, Family, Halloween, Horror, Humor, Zombie Nick, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27123470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrimmsterJ/pseuds/GrimmsterJ
Summary: A Halloween season fun special. Nick and the gang are confronted by another Zombie Romp. Mostly Canon characters, approximately 3-years post finale.
Relationships: Hank Griffin & Drew Wu, Nick Burkhardt & Drew Wu, Nick Burkhardt & Hank Griffin, Nick Burkhardt & Monroe, Nick Burkhardt/Adalind Schade, Rosalee Calvert & Elizabeth Lascelles, Rosalee Calvert/Monroe
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19





	1. Are those zombies?

Zombies, Nick Burkhart

Supernatural/Humor/family/horror  
Characters: Nick, Adalind, Monroe, Rosalee, Hank, Wu, Elizabeth Lascelles, Diana

Chapter 1

Are those zombies?

3k words 10/23/20 r6

Timeline, approximately 3-years after finale.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Monroe sat across the table from Hank and savored the complex aroma of the fifteen year old small batch scotch whiskey. "Is it just me, or is Portland weirder than usual?"

Hank's eyes brightened with another sip of the small batch whiskey "You know, after the last ten years, Wesen, You and Rosalee, Hexenbiests, Nick, Wu going Neander, Deputy Faris with her Mishipeshu thing, all the rest, I just quit asking that question."

"I think there might be zombies wandering around again. Like last night on Plant Street."

"I don't know, I thought that was just some sort of protest. I mean there weren't really that many people out there. Less than fifty."

"Nothing much was smashed, burned, or looted. Just a couple people bitten."

"Were there any flame throwers, molotov cocktails, or people throwing bricks?"

"No."

"Ok, and so how is a mostly non-violent protest an actual problem?"

"I couldn't tell what they were protesting about."

"So, Is that any different than usual?"

*grumble* "No."

"Ok, so is this supposed 'zombie' problem actually any worse than things normally are?"

Monroe grumbled under his breath at the idea "No! But still! Zombies! I think Eddie got bitten!"

Hank chuckled to himself thinking about Eddie "He's always been weird. I'm pretty sure it's just the normal Eddie."

"He was shuffling around, grunting, then he walked up against the wall and tried to take a bite out of it."

"Was he insulting you about your political views, making strawman attacks about all the hypothetical injustices in the world, or flooding your cellphone with fifty thousand incendiary political texts?"

"No, just dragging around trying to bite people."

"So, if anything, an improvement?"

Monroe rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath "Ok, fine, it's clearly an improvement, but still, he's a zombie!"

"I'm just saying. Maybe we let it ride for now."

Monroe looked out the window at one walking by "Hey, look! There's one! Should we call the cops?"

"Is he bothering anybody or doing anything illegal?"

"No, but still. It's a zombie."

"And 'the cops' are already here. He's not doing anything illegal. I'm a cop. What am I supposed to do?"

"Arrest it and investigate what's going on."

Now Hank grumbled "Why? He's not doing anything wrong! He's going to sue us for harassment and unlawful imprisonment. I've already got my hands full investigating actual crime."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

A few days later at the Portland Police Precinct office...

Sgt. Wu walked past detectives Nick and Hank "Hey, did you guys see the news? Portland COVID cases have been way down lately, you guys heard anything?"

Hank looked at him with a blank look "Nope, we investigate murders, but they've been down lately too."

"Did you hear about that protest thing last Tuesday night?"

"Nope, what were they protesting?"

"You know how these things always go, it's sort of hard to tell. Probably the same thing they're always protesting... Injustice, inequality, the rent is too high, or maybe it's just Tuesday and Don Julio's ran out of tamales by eleven again."

"Well, I got there before eleven and they were already out. I've been jonesing for a couple of their cheese tamales and a Mexican Coke for three weeks now."

"Anyway, there were a lot of people bit."

"Bit? Was anybody throwing bricks, molotov cocktails, or shooting flamethrowers?"

"Nope."

"And no COVID outbreak afterwards?"

"Nope. I guess they wore masks" Wu's face lit up as he laughed

"Well, we can all be thankful for that."

"Yep, it's sort of nice for a change, it's the least violent protest we've had in years. Oh hey, the Medical Examiner wants to see you guys, she had another live one wake up in the morgue."

"What do we know?"

"Not much except James Malloy is no longer a murder victim."

"Well, I'll take a win when I can get one. Our job just got easier." He looked down at his watch and sighed "Hey Nick, we might be able to get our hands on a couple of those Don Julio's tamales if we leave now."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Nick and Hank made it down to the city morgue half an hour later.

Medical Examiner Cindy met them. "Hey, Portland's Finest ghost busters, just the guys I need."

Hank snickered "Morning Cindy, What's up?"

"We just had another one wake up. This makes three today."

"Who's the latest one?"

"Brian Stevenson. We thought he was another murder victim."

"Apparently not anymore. Hey, any chance you ran tox screens on any of these guys?"

"Nope, we don't fool with that stuff for normal garden variety murders. Cause of death on this one was listed as blunt force. Our no-longer-a-vic got clonked with a brick by a mugger after the protest on Tuesday night."

"Anything odd?"

"Ha! This is Portland. You're going to have to narrow that down."

"Similarities between the dead guys who woke up?"

She picked up the files and looked, then wrinkled her brow. "Huh, they all had bite marks?"

Hank looked at Nick curiously.

"Animal, vegetable, or mineral?"

Cindy laughed "Definitely human."

Suddenly a loud banging broke the cold silence of the morgue. One of the drawers slammed open, a body rolled out, and hit the floor with a loud thud. An extremely disoriented, naked woman slowly stood up and looked straight at the three of them. Her grayish, clammy skin glistened under the flickering, greenish, fluorescent lamps, and she stared at them through red, bloodshot eyes sunk deeply into her skull. She looked around, snarled, and ran straight towards them.

Medical Examiner Cindy ran, screaming, out of the morgue. Hank pulled his gun, but Nick charged straight at the woman. Suddenly, the woman stopped in her tracks, looked at Nick, nodded, and sat down in a chair.

Hank, now even more bewildered, looked at Nick to see what was going on. A very gray Nick stared aggressively at the woman through jet black eyes sunken deeply into his head. "Uh, Nick, what just happened?"

Nick turned to Hank, now regular Nick again, and looked at him like he was an idiot "I just told her to calm down and take a seat or things would get violent."

"Uh, you didn't tell anybody anything."

"Of course I did, Charlene here is really confused about what happened. I explained that she was in the morgue because we thought she was dead, and we would get her over to the hospital here in a few minutes."

"Who?"

"Charlene Simpson. That's her name."

"How did you know that?"

Nick looked at Hank like he was an idiot again and rolled his eyes "Come on Hank, she just told us."

"Huh? She didn't say anything."

"You feeling ok? I just had this entire conversation with Charlene and somehow you didn't notice it?"

"Neither of you said anything."

Nick looked back over at the woman "Sorry, of course, your clothes should be with your personal effects. We can get some food on the way to the hospital."

Hank stared at Nick again "She didn't say anything."

"Come on Hank. She was wondering where her clothes went. She just said she's cold and asked for some lunch."

Hank scratched his head, shrugged, and found her bag of clothes and personal effects. "Ask her if she's ok with Mexican. I think we better call Rosalee."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Lunch

Hank watched a very grayish zombie Charlene slowly chew cheese tamales and drink Mexican coke at Don Julio's. He decided it was the weirdest lunch since last week when Diana teleported all the kids over and cooked him lunch.

"Hank?" Nick looked at Hank with a mild scowl.

"What?" Hank looked back confused.

"You feeling ok? You don't usually ignore victims like this."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"She's asked you a bunch of questions."

"No, she hasn't said anything."

"Come on Hank! Don't be like that."

"But she didn't say anything at all. Ask her if she can talk out loud."

"Seriously?"

"Ok, have her ask me another question. I'll record it on my phone so she can see."

Nick rolled his eyes and grumbled, but turned to Charlene and stared at her.

Hank got out his phone and recorded her "asking him a question." She just sat there completely expressionless, blank faced, the whole time.

He played the video of her staring with a blank look back to Nick and Charlene. Nick shrugged "That's weird. I think there's something wrong with your phone. I could hear what she said in the recording but it didn't pick up her mouth moving."

"Nick, her mouth didn't move. I couldn't hear anything. Look, you can see the people in the next seat talking. What was she asking?"

Nick shrugged "Small talk stuff, what's your favorite flavor tamale here, do you like the guacamole, pass the queso, stuff like that."

Hank slid the queso dip over to her. "Can you ask her if she can talk with her mouth."

She paused for a minute, then very slowly grunted "thanks for the cheese dip."

Nick smiled "She said she didn't realize she wasn't using her mouth. She's not sure why, but her mouth doesn't work right."

"We probably need to take her over to Rosalee."

"Well, we've got to take her to the hospital first. She's already in the system."

-/-/-/-/-/-

They signed her in at the hospital and walked her up to her room. Suddenly zombies started pouring out of rooms. Doctors and nurses panicked, white faced, running and screaming all over the place. Zombies aggressively chased people, picked things up, and started smashing stuff. Ten zombies flew out of rooms and angrily charged at Nick, Hank, and Charlene.

Hank pulled his gun as fast as he could get it out, but the odds looked extremely poor.

Hank had his finger on the trigger when Nick scowled angrily, wogued into Zombie mode, and stared at them. They suddenly stopped, looked at Nick, turned around, and filed back into their rooms.

Hank lowered his gun and looked at Nick even more confused. "What was that?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"There were like thirty zombies raging all over the place and another ten coming at us. They all just stopped and went back into their rooms. Now they're sitting quietly in their beds and chairs."

"I told them to go back to their rooms."

"But they listened."

"Of course they listened. We're cops."

Hank wondered to himself. _Normal people don't listen all that well to cops, especially not violent mobs. It's like Nick is controlling them._ "Hey Nick, I want to see if we can talk to that James Malloy fellow. See if he knows anything about this. Any chance he's here?"

He watched Nick shift back into zombie mode, focus deep in thought for a couple minutes, then look around. "Ok, he's on the way."

About five minutes later, a very gray man with blood shot red eyes sunken deeply into his skull, stepped out of the elevator and up to them. "Hank, meet James Malloy."

"Nick?"

"Yeah, Hank?"

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Get him here."

"Huh?"

"He was on a different floor of the hospital."

"No he wasn't. I'm pretty sure he was right here. I just flagged him down and told him to come over."

"He just got out of the elevator a second ago. Ask him what floor he was on."

"He said the 8th floor."

"We're on the 3rd floor."

"Hank?"

"Yeah?"

"What did you want to ask him? He said he's really tired."

Hank looked at James. The man hadn't said a single word either. Hank looked at Nick and shrugged. It just wasn't worth the protest. "I bet he's had a rough day and is having trouble with his mouth not cooperating like Charlene. How about I ask some questions and you tell me what he said."

Nick rolled his eyes but went along with it.

Half an hour later there were three dozen expressionless zombies, five mystified doctors, and ten confused nurses all crowded around Nick. He scowled angrily at the silent zombies staring at him through bloodshot, sunken eyes "Hey! Not all at once, I can only keep up with one of you at a time! Gosh! It's like trying to talk to my kids. Ok, Mr. Carrolton, your turn, what did you need to tell Dr. Allen here? Allergic to pollen and Iodine, currently taking heart medication, and you had hernia surgery two years ago. Doc, he says he's got a headache and is having trouble with his mouth. Ok. Anything else?"

Dr. Allen looked on completely flummoxed. He stood ready to interrupt Nick that the man hadn't said anything when Hank shushed him. "It's OK, he's an interpreter."

Hank decided to take notes while Nick played Zombie interpreter.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Several hours later, Monroe smiled as he slowly swirled his scotch while reclining into the big chair across from Hank. Hank relaxed in the couch and swirled his glass.

Hank scratched his head at Monroe and took a sip of scotch "I think Adalind is rubbing off on Nick. I'm pretty sure Nick telepathically communicated with zombies today."

Monroe sighed deeply as he took a sip "I guess Adalind rubbing off on Nick shouldn't surprise me. What did he do?"

"Well, first, there was the one at the morgue. She was attacking us and he challenged her, then she just calmed down. Apparently they had a long conversation and he asked her a bunch of questions, but neither of them said anything."

"Hmm, ok. I've never heard of Grimms talking to zombies."

"Get a load of this. Then we got to the hospital with the zombie girl. The place was full of zombies. They started streaming out and surrounded us to attack, but he changed into zombie mode and they just stopped. They calmed down and got in line. It was like he was controlling them. He sent them back to their rooms so the doctors could work on them."

Monroe purposefully, slowly, swirled his scotch around in the glass for a minute and stopped, deep in thought "So wait, there was no fighting? None?"

"Nope, no fighting with us at all. Not with us or the doctors after Nick had a telepathic talk with the zombies. You should have seen all of them just staring at us with completely blank looks on their faces and Nick 'explaining' what they said to the doctors and nurses."

"Huh? A Grimm, zombies, and no fighting? That is kinda weird, especially given Nick."

"Yeah, he just turned all clammy grayish green with black sunken eyes. They all stopped, and just did whatever he wanted, but he didn't say anything."

"So wait, did he shift into Zombie mode on purpose?"

"I guess, maybe?"

"Nick wogued? Like he controlled it?"

"He seemed to. He went in and out several times."

"I bet Adalind finally taught him how to wogue." Monroe smiled, inhaled from his glass, and took a slow sip.

"Hmm, that would make sense. He never really seemed to control it before."

"I'll find out from Rosalee. She probably already knows."

"Hey, we need to talk with Rosalee about an antidote for this zombie thing. There's over forty of them at the hospital. I bet the doctors have no idea what to do."

"I'll ask her and see. Rosalee will probably want you guys to bring a zombie over so she can diagnose it."

"I think this might be a new Burkhart record."

"Weirder than dinosaurs?"

"I don't know, this has to be up there."

"Weirder than Diana teleporting my kids to your house for lunch?"

"Or Nick's kids filling your house with bats?" Hank laughed remembering that "Rosalee was not happy about that."

"Nope. That's how we got the 'No bats' house rule, this is barely even borderline weird for Nick."

"Or Hexenbiests in witch mode" Hank shuddered unconsciously "Wow they still give me the creeps."

"You did sleep with her."

"Not one of my better decisions. Anyway, the more you mention it, this doesn't really stand out as anything other than just normal weird for Nick's family."

"Yeah, it would be weird if Wu was the one talking to zombies. It's nowhere near Diana level weird."

"True. You know she still teleports into me and orders my groceries online."

Monroe took a long, slow sip of his scotch, savored the flavor, and laughed "She still logs in while you're asleep?"

"Yep" Hank said with a big smile "Best idea ever. I hate grocery shopping."

Monroe nodded knowingly. Then his eyes went a bit misty "I can't believe Nick finally wogued, with Adalind none the less. I brought him into this world. It's like my little Grimm is all grown up. I wonder how she got him to wogue? We've been working on him ever since the first Zombie Romp, but he just never gets it."

Hank snickered "I'm pretty sure she has weapons in her arsenal that you don't"

"Well she is a Hexenbiest"

Hank winked at Monroe "I'm not talking about that."

"I'm still curious how she got him to wogue and to control it."


	2. Mmmmmm Brains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick learns how to control his Zombie wogue.

Zombies, Nick Burkhart

Chapter 2

Mmmmm! Brains!

1k words 10/20/20 r1

-/-/-/-/-/-

Several days earlier

Adalind looked at her family and smiled. A husband and four kids! She never wanted a big family. Truthfully, she used to hate kids and never wanted any family, but now she had a house full of kids and wouldn't trade the entire world for her old life back.

She watched as the kids noisily frolicked through the house, bounced up onto the bed, and started chattering at Nick. "Dad, are you awake? Mom wants to know what you want for breakfast."

Nick grinned "Bacon!"

"Dad! Mom hates bacon." Kelly exclaimed with a disapproving scowl.

"Ok, then, how about bacon and eggs?"

"No Dad!" Catherine rolled her eyes at him.

"Well, how about a bacon, tomato, and cheese omelet?"

"Dad! No bacon and Mom is allergic to tomatoes." Diana said with a groan.

Nick winked and tickled the kids "Ok, well, go ask Mom what we do have."

Four kids went romping out of the bedroom and immediately lost track of what they were supposed to do. They zoomed up the stairs to the roof with a bag of old bread to feed the birds.

Adalind didn't hear anything back from the kids "Nick, sweetie, what do you want for breakfast?"

Nick walked out towards the kitchen for a cup of coffee and kissed her. "What do we have?"

"How about your favorite, old fashioned Iowa farm breakfast, brains and eggs."

"Brains and eggs. I can't believe how much I like that. How did you ever come up with this recipe?"

"I grew up eating it on the farm. Grandma Schade always used to make it for breakfast."

"How come I never knew about this before we got married?"

Adalnd laughed at Nick and whipped up a batch for the family. After breakfast, Adalind's Halloween preparations came front and center "So what are you dressing up for Halloween?"

"I'm thinking about going traditional. A Grimm with a huge axe."

"You do that every year. I think you should go as something else."

"Like what?"

"Maybe a Werewolf?"

"Funny. You want me to dress up as Monroe?"

"Yeah, Rosalee might not think that's as funny as I do. I don't know, maybe a zombie or something."

Nick chuckled, thinking back to the Zombie Romp, years ago. "You know I was actually a zombie once, right?"

"Really? Like an eat brains zombie?"

"No, more like a smash stuff and murder everybody zombie. I got infected by a Cracher-Mortel. The Royals were trying to kidnap me."

"Huh. I don't remember hearing about that."

"I'm pretty sure you were in Austria."

Adalind shrugged "So, what was it like?"

"Really weird. It's a powerful hallucinogen. It stops your heart and breathing. It made me really really crazy and violent."

"Like more violent than a normal Grimm?"

"I destroyed an airplane"

"That's not that impressive"

"In flight. I killed everyone onboard. It crashed into The Cascades. I walked away from the plane crash, smashed up a whole bunch of stuff. Not one of my better days."

"So what happened?"

"I'm not completely sure, except that Rosalee fixed me up."

"Wait, so were there any lasting effects?"

"Yeah, I can run for miles or fight for hours and not get tired. One time I was underwater in the sound for fourty rive minutes. Sometimes when I get really angry I turn gray and fight super hard."

"That's from the zombie thing? I thought that's just a normal Grimm thing."

"Nope."

"Interesting, so can you wogue?"

"Huh? Of course not, I'm not Wesen."

"No, like wogue into zombie mode. Can you control it?"

"I don't know. I've never tried."

"You should try."

"Huh? How?"

Adalind walked him through the process. She coached him through woguing in and out a few times. Then she had him try it on his own. Nick focused extra hard, pushed his emotions and aggression as hard as he could, then zoom. Zombie Nick. Instead of his normal red, deeply bloodshot zombie eyes, wogued Zombie Nick's eyes became fully visible Grimm eyes.

"Aw! Look at you! Nick! You wogued." Adalind giggled as she stared into the empty depths of the abyss, her own normal reflection floating eerily in the blackness. While everyone else saw murder and relentless creeping death, she saw safety, comfort, companionship, and family in the bottomless coal dark empty pits sunk deeply into his skull. They were the eyes of her lover.

Nick's cold, pale grayish green skin looked extra clammy, glistening in the morning sunlight. He just stood there unresponsive, then gritted his teeth and snarled a low growl.

Adalind smirked at him and handed him the leftover bowl of brains and eggs. He looked at her with a blank look. She took a fork and put it in his mouth. He slowly chewed it then grunted "Mmmmmm. Brains."

"Ha, so awesome! Mr. Zombie, I think we just found your Halloween costume!"

He grunted, slowly finished breakfast, then walked up to her and grabbed her with a steel hard grip. He pulled her in close and snapped his teeth.

"Mmmm, you like it that much? I'll need to make this more often!"

She wogued into Hexenbiest mode and scratched her mummified, desiccated, bony hands across his cold, greenish, expressionless face. He snatched a thick handful of gray, matted witch hair with one hand and effortlessly yanked the ancient witch corpse off the ground to himself and caught her. He turned and trudged across the kitchen out towards the bedroom.

He stopped in the living room, and threw her into the couch. He stared sunken, black eyes into her empty, mummified eye sockets. The zombie snapped his teeth at her again, grabbed her, and bit into the ancient corpse's neck. The witch corpse ground her bony jaws, quietly screeched, ran her leathery hands across his cold, grayish skin, into his greasy black hair, giggled, then whispered "Mmmmm! Nick! Not in front of the kids!"

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

A few hours later, a yawning, flushed Adalind with disheveled hair smiled at Nick and ran her hands gently across his chest. She smiled mischievously "So, Mr. Grimm, what other powers do you have that you aren't telling me about?"


	3. Miss Communication

Zombies, Nick Burkhart

Chapter 3

Miss Communication

1.9k words 10/22/20 r2

-/-/-/-/-/-

The day after Nick's crazy hospital adventure...

Adalind smiled as she looked at all the kids frolicking at the park. She was returning the favor, watching the kiddos for Rosalee, who needed a little break after a long ten-day-straight stretch at The Spice Shop. She laughed thinking about what her mom would have said about her taking eight kids to the park. Her four kids and Rosalee's four as well. _Mom_ _would have rolled over in her grave, again._ Her mother endlessly resented having one child, always encouraged her to stay childless, and here she was thinking eight kids was actually a lot of fun, but maybe a couple more would be even better.

She watched Kelly and Diana romp with Jason, Alexander, and Jillian while Catherine and Chuck made sandcastles with Kyle.

She shot to her feet when she heard the screaming and commotion at the other end of the park. She purposefully marched between the kids and two dozen grayish looking people with bloodshot eyes smashing their way towards them.

Adalind's posture became aggressive, hands on her hips, as she prepared to biest, but they suddenly stopped and stared at her, expressionless, through their deeply sunken eyes. _That's right! You heard me! This is a park. Our kids are playing here, so there will be no fighting or pushing! Now go clean up that birthday party you knocked over! And no biting!_

They slowly started trudging back towards the destroyed birthday party and began picking things up, returning presents, and throwing away trash. One zombie started shuffling away in the opposite direction. "Diana, honey, can you send him back to help the others clean up?"

"Sure Mom!" Diana wrinkled her nose and stared at the man. He kept trudging away, slowed down, stopped, stared expressionless, when the sudden calm was broken by a large bang and the sound of splattering.

"Diana!"

"What mom?"

"Honey, you blew up his head."

"He wouldn't go back."

"Honey, you can't push them that hard all at once. Zombies are fragile. You have to push more gently."

"Ok mom."

"Now try again on that other zombie over there, the one that is wandering off."

"Ok, Mom."

Soon, zombies were pushing all the kids on swings while other zombies cleaned the park.

Adalind smiled as she talked on the phone "Yeah, Nick, there are zombies over here at the park. Yeah, no problem. They are pretty easy for me to control. Diana is learning, though. We're going to have to figure out what to do with them. It's too many to just leave roaming around."

Another loud bang cut through the sound of children playing, followed by a splatter. "Diana! Not so hard, you blew up another one. Anyway Nick, what were you saying? Jail? No, why don't we take them to the house for now. I could use some extra help with chores and stuff. I'll just have them wander on over. Yep, definitely call Rosalee."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Nick scratched his head wondering what he was coming home to. A house full of zombies? He shrugged, it still wasn't weirder than Yesterday at the hospital. _What's wrong with those doctors? I still have no idea why they kept ignoring those patients. I mean, isn't that their day job? Hank too, I wonder what's gotten into him._

He drove up, greeted by one zombie dragging a headless zombie carcass across his driveway. He ran his hands through his hair and scowled at the pile of headless zombies next to the garage. _Hey! What the heck are you doing?_

The zombie turned and stared at him, expressionless _You don't want to go in there, buddy, it's some sort of crazy murder freak show out of a movie!_ _Oh, you're a cop! Thank God! There's some_ _creepy girl in there with purple eyes!_ _She keeps blowing up people's heads. And I'm pretty sure I saw a witch in there too, like an actual witch! I don't really know what kind of horror show lives in this house,_ _but it's bad, real bad!_

_Hey! Watch your mouth! Nobody talks about my wife and kids like that._

_Oh, sorry buddy, I didn't mean any disrespect. Wait? Your wife and kids? So, is the witch lady actually a witch?_

_Of course she's a witch. You_ _might want to do what she says. Just saying._

_Yeah, well, I kinda don't have much choice. Why do you think I'm dragging Headless Guy here across the yard.  
_

_Ok, well, I gotta go in and see what I'm walking into._

_I think she's in a bad mood. The little girl got brains all over her clothes._

_Again?_

_What do you mean 'again?'_

_Oh, nothing, never mind. Just thinking out loud. Throw_ _the body on the pile and come on back into the house. I'll deal with it later.  
_

_Inside? Are you out of your mind? She'll kill me!_

_You'll be fine.  
_

_No way!_

_Suit yourself._

_Hey, what does that mean?_

_I'm going to have to teach her how to control zombies. No way mom's going to allow that inside the house now._

_No, please,_ _just keep the girl away from me._

He heard Adalind yelling as soon as he pulled up into the garage "Young lady! Look at this mess. You got zombie brains all over my cabinets again. I told you not to push them so hard. Now go get another jug of peroxide out of the garage."

"But Mom!"

"Don't but me young lady! We already talked about this."

He walked in the door to find a frustrated Momma witch holding her hands on her hips, scowling at her daughter.

Nick walked up and kissed her hard "Rough day hon?"

Adalind wrapped her arms around his neck "Thank God you're finally home. I've just got my hands full with the kids and the mess and Diana keeps blowing them up."

"I think you still have some brains in your hair."

*grumble*

"Maybe I can help her."

"Well, if you decide to, please do it outside. I don't think I can handle another cleanup on Aisle Three."

Nick took Diana outside and drove the zombie back over to them. He shifted into Zombie mode and stared at the expressionless, blank faced zombie. "Diana, Ed here is very scared about you blowing up his head like the others. Can you promise him you'll be more careful?"

"Ok. I promise to try not to blow up your head Ed."

"He's still worried. Can you try to help him calm down? What do you want to try first? How about walk him over to the pile of dead zombies, then back."

"Ok, Dad."

Diana focused and flashed her eyes purple.

Nick instantly gripped his head and doubled over. "Diana! That's way too hard. Softer!"

"Ok Dad"

"Softer  
Softer  
Softer  
Softer  
Softer  
Ok, let's try that. Ed? You still OK?"

The zombie grunted.

"Dad! He won't go!"

"Diana, can you hear him talking? Try talking to him like he's talking to you. He can't understand what you want. Here, listen to me."

Nick focused and looked at the zombie. The zombie walked over and put out his hand for Diana to shake. Diana smiled and shook it.

"Ok, do you want to try it?"

"Ok Dad."

Ed's hand suddenly flapped up into Nick's face. "Look Dad! I did it!"

Nick smiled and tousled her blonde hair _Great job Diana. Now see if you can walk him over to the door and back. Remember to talk to him nicely and be very gentle.  
_

 _Ok, let me try!_ _I'm going to walk this one over to the pile of dead zombies now.  
_

_See! I knew you could do it._

_Dad, this is super fun!_

Ten minutes later Diana smiled a big bright smile while driving ten zombies all around the front yard. Nick laughed "Diana, you're doing great. See, you have to listen to what they say, talk to them nicely, and be gentle. Now let's go see if we can help Mom clean up that mess."

"Ok Dad."

Soon they were back upstairs and Diana had all the zombies cleaning the house while she excitedly chattered at Mom about controlling zombies.

Adalind wrapped Nick into a huge hug and kissed him "I don't know what I would do without you. I just couldn't get her to understand."

"They couldn't understand her and she was blasting them so hard. I showed her how to listen to them and talk to them."

"You can hear them?"

Nick grumbled "Not you too? Hank and the doctors at the hospital kept telling me they weren't talking, but I can hear them fine."

"I can barely hear them telepathically. I have to really focus to figure it out."

"Really?"

"Since when did you communicate telepathically and read minds?" Adalind said with a big smile

"Huh? I can't do any of that. I just tell them what to do."

"The only way you can communicate with zombies is telepathically. That's why Hexenbiests can do it."

"That's weird. Are you sure?"

"It's probably why Hank and the people at the hospital kept telling you they weren't talking."

"Yeah. I don't know what was wrong with everybody yesterday. I had forty zombies, five doctors, and ten nurses all talking at once, wanting me to tell doctors things, and asking questions. They drove me crazy. It was the weirdest day in a while."

"So wait, could you communicate with Diana telepathically?"

"No."

"Did you hear what she was saying when she was talking to the zombies?"

"Oh yeah, of course. That's how I helped her figure it out."

"And could she hear what you were telling the zombies?"

"Yeah, I guess so, that's how she figured it out"

_So did you try talking to her telepathically?_

_No, I can't do that._

Adalind rolled her eyes and poked him gently _You're doing it right now with me._

_No, I'm not_

_Ha! See! You're not moving your mouth at all. We can have a ton of fun with this on game night with Monroe and Rosalee._

_Really? Weird. I'm pretty sure I'm talking out loud._

Adalind giggled, ran her hands through his hair, and kissed him again _This is going to be so much fun! We're finally going to beat Rosalee at Pictionary!_

_I'm no good at that game._

Adalind winked _I'll bet you are a lot better at it now._

Nick thought for a minute and looked back at Adalind "Have you ever seen this many zombies in Portland?"

"I've never seen any zombies in Portland. Where are they all coming from?"

"Nobody knows, the last time it was The Royals cranking up shenanigans."

"The Royals? Are they coming after Diana again, or you? I don't like this Nick."

Diana now came over "Mom, our friends say they are all hungry. They are wondering when they can have some dinner?"

Adalind giggled "Maybe brains?"

Diana flashed her eyes purple "No mom, they don't like brains. They want to know if they can have Mexican tonight."

Adalind laughed out loud "Taco Tuesday it is. Can you help me make dinner for our guests?"

Diana smiled a big smile "Yes!"


	4. Blood from a stone

Zombies, Nick Burkhart

Chapter 4

Blood from a stone

2k words 10/22/20 r2

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

The gang poured through old books in The Spice Shop over pizza and parmesan garlic knots.

Wu slurped his iced tea, looked up, and smiled "Hey! Listen to this. 'March 2nd 1869. I investigated an outbreak of a peculiar plague at the behest of the governor. I came upon a fearful mob of grayish men who fought tirelessly and did not respond either to blows or weapons. They could not speak and hardly did anything beyond grunt, as if some sort of evil spirit had possessed them. They appeared to be spreading their plague via biting. While I normally stay out of non-Wesen matters, in this case, Archibald, my fellow Grimm, and I decided to intervene for the sake of public health. We found Decapitation entirely satisfactory, and the most effective method of dispatching these devils.'"

Nick bit into the crust of his supreme pizza and scowled "Well, I suppose it's effective, but I sort of feel bad about hacking their heads off for no reason. They're pretty helpful and polite, it's like they just have trouble working their mouths. Let's try to find a cure."

Adalind looked up from her salad and nodded while everybody else looked at Nick like he was crazy. Helpful, polite, and zombies didn't go in the same sentence to them.

Rosalee and Monroe chewed parmesan knots and looked up from their books "There's a lot of stuff that sounds similar but it's caused by poisons or venom, like Nick's Cracher-Mortel. None of these seem to address a blood born pathogen that can spread via bites. Adalind, you got anything?"

Adalind picked her head up out of a Hexenbiest book and washed down her tomato-free Greek salad with a slurp of diet coke "There are references to this, but no cures listed. It's more like how to identify and control them, not how to fix them."

Wu laughed "Are we sure we want to 'fix' this? Murders and COVID outbreaks are both way down. These fellows seem fairly easy to deal with. They back down pretty quickly when Old Man Burkhart here yells at them."

Monroe's serious look betrayed his concern "It's a zombie outbreak! Seriously?"

Rosalee nodded in agreement with her husband, then scratched her head "I wonder, maybe we need to contact Elizabeth."

Nick looked at Adalind and smiled. Elizabeth barely needed an excuse to come visit the grandkids. Adalind looked at Nick and laughed "If she's not already on an airplane now. Diana teleports with her pretty frequently."

And right on cue, a loud rapping broke the late night silence. Rosalee was two feet away from the spice shop door when the locks snapped themselves open and the door swung open with a welcoming jingle. Elizabeth waltzed straight in and gave Rosalee a big hug as the door closed and locked itself shut. "Rosalee! It's so good to see you again! How are the children?"

Rosalee's face betrayed her relief for Elizabeth's presence. The Fuchsbau and the old Hexenbiest formed a close friendship over the past two years. Elizabeth even started teaching Rosalee how to adjust recipes for individual Wesen the way an experienced Hexenbiest would.

Nick and Adalind had a feeling, they were right behind Rosalee. Adalind gave Elizabeth a big hug.

Elizabeth smiled at the group "I hear you have a bit of a zombie problem?"

Rosalee looked at her with a tired look "Yes, this doesn't seem to be in any of the books. It doesn't look like a Wesen venom or poison. It's transmitted via zombie bites."

"Hmmm, yes, well, it just so happens I came up with a book for this." She smiled and pulled out an ancient, gray, dusty book with "Le Mort Vivant" embossed on the cover in ancient French script.

"The living dead?" Rosalee smiled "Where did you find it?"

"An online auction, my dear. It was listed by a thrift store in Des Moines, Iowa, as a decoration. I got it for a dollar and forty-seven cents." Elizabeth chuckled "The shipping cost more than the book."

Everyone stood around her expectantly. She frowned "There's just one problem."

Adalind looked at her "A problem?"

"I can't open it."

"What?"

"It's closed with some sort of spell. Nothing I've tried does anything."

"Any idea what might open it?"

"Not really, the only thing I haven't tried yet is a zombie. I don't exactly have any of those laying around."

Everybody suddenly turned towards Nick.

He looked at them, surprised "Huh? What? I'm a Grimm, what am I supposed to do?"

Adalind slid up to him "Can you try the zombie thing."

"Oh, yeah, that's right." He focused. Suddenly all the color drained out of him, his eyes turned jet black and sunk deep into his skull. Adalind giggled while everyone else unconsciously moved a step back. Elizabeth laid the dusty old book into his grayish hand. He pulled, twisted, and strained, but it wouldn't open.

Elizabeth looked at them "Maybe try Zombie blood? Do you have a knife?"

Nick turned his gray, expressionless face towards Adalind _Why does everything like this always have to take blood? I really don't like cutting myself! It hurts!_

Adalind looked back at him _It won't be too bad, we'll fix you up._

Elizabeth looked at Nick _You can talk telepathically?_

_No, of course not._

_But you aren't moving your mouth_

_Why does everybody keep saying that?_

Adalind smirked _Elizabeth, I_ _keep telling him that but he still doesn't believe me._

Rosalee looked at the three of them, confused, as they stared at eachother in silence for several minutes. "Uh, I have the knife right here. Are you guys Ok? 

Elizabeth smiled "Oh, sorry, I just lost myself in thoughts. Ok, Nick, let's try some zombie Grimm blood."

Zombie Nick slowly sliced Rosalee's knife deep into his hand, but nothing came out. He squeezed his fist several times while everyone stared, surprised, at the deep wound sliced into grayish meat that wasn't bleeding.

Wu chuckled "Tough crowd."

Finally, Adalind massaged, rubbed, and squeezed all the way from his shoulder, down his arm, to his hand. One single, large, drop of thick, gooey, black blood slowly oozed out, hung on his skin, and finally dripped onto the fore edge of the book. The blood sizzled for a few seconds before a large puff of ancient dust exhaled out of the book as it flopped open.

Monroe coughed "Well, look at that! A zombie book!"

Elizabeth was about to stick her fingers into the gray flesh inside Nick's wound to heal it back up when Adalind stopped her "Elizabeth! Remember, he's a Grimm and you usually teleport in to do this sort of thing with Diana. Better let me."

Elizabeth pulled her hand back gingerly "Thank you so much my dear. I would hate to give up the ghost like that. We spend so much time together that I forget Nick's Grimm blood does not agree with regular Hexenbiests, and I don't carry Blood of a Grimm like you do. Now, let me take a look at this book while you fix your husband up."

Elizabeth flipped through page after page, confused. Rosalee and Monroe came over and stared at the book, equally confused. "It's blank."

Nick, back in regular Nick mode, winced as Hexen-Adalind closed up his now-bloody hand. "What? The book had all sorts of stuff written in it."

"So you could read stuff in it?"

"Yeah, I guess, it had all sorts of writing, pictures, stuff like that. Let me take a look."

They slid the book around. Every page was blank. He looked quizzically. "I could have sworn I saw writing."

Elizabeth smiled "I think you have to be a zombie to read it."

Nick shifted back into zombie mode, flipped to the table of contents and started slowly trying to make sense the words.

"It looks like it's all in some sort of weird, Old French script. I cant understand it."

"Read it out loud and we can probably figure it out."

Nick started slowly trying to read it to them

Elizabeth teased him "Your Old French is terrible." Her eyes twinkled with gentle laughter as he grumbled "And slow."

He rolled his eyes "I can barely make out the letters because of the script."

Realization struck Elizabeth, and she looked at Adalind for a minute. "Do you think it would work?"

Adalind responded with a blank look.

"ouvre les yeux des morts"

"What's that?"

Rosalee looked up "Open the eyes of the dead?"

Elizabeth smiled "It's a form of seconde vue"

Rosalee nodded knowingly. This was mentioned in one of Nick's ancient Grimm books about Hexenbiests, but Adalind looked on, confused "Um, what's that?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and sighed a plaintive sigh. "Young Hexenbiests these days, they know nothing of our old ways. I think we may be able to see through Nick's eyes when he is in Zombie mode."

"Oh!" Adalind blushed red. "That."

"Oh, so you have seen through his eyes?" Elizabeth said with a wink.

"Well, not on purpose" Adalind giggled like a little girl "at first."

Elizabeth snickered, knowingly "Well, we're not going to do it that way here. Do you read old French?"

"No."

"I may have to sort of log in to Nick while he's in Zombie mode, so I can read the book, if it's ok with the two of you."

This suddenly caught Nick's attention "Log in? To me?"

He looked around, noticed everybody staring at him, then shrugged. It still wasn't the weirdest thing that happened this week.

Nick sat down at the table next to Elizabeth. Elizabeth transformed into witch mode and Nick transformed into zombie mode. She flashed her eyes solid gray, put her hand on him, then focused. Suddenly his eyes synched with hers and she started reading. She started flipping her hands in the air and he blasted through the book, quickly zooming through page after page till she got to the relevant section. The ancient witch corpse stared sticky gray eyes off into oblivion while she flicked bony, curled, mummified fingers through the air and he moved his across pages.

Hexen-Elizabeth smiled "I'll need to check some of the zombies to understand specifically which type I'm working with, but using these instructions, I think Rosalee and I can work backwards to a cure."

A very curious Adalind had to ask "It doesn't have any cures?"

Elizabeth laughed "No, of course not, it's various instructions for creating different types of zombies."

Rosalee smiled "But if you know how to make one?"

"Precisely, my dear, we should be able to work out the cure. Just one thing, please don't close the book. Getting blood out of a stone, and all."

Rosalee smiled "Oh, one thing Elizabeth, how did you know about all this so quickly?"

"So quickly? My dear, Diana asked me to look into this almost six months ago. It took me literally forever to come up with that book."

Rosalee looked at Elizabeth, surprised "Six months? It's only been three days."

Adalind chuckled "Well, you're welcome to stay at our house. We've still got some zombies helping out at the house if you want to check them."

Elizabeth smiled "Of course! You know I never turn down a chance to see my grandchildren."

Monroe looked up from his pizza "Hey, I wonder where this whole outbreak originated?"

Adalind spoke everybody else's thoughts "I sure hope The Royals aren't trying to crank up another round of shenanigans to get Diana."

Hank grimaced "or a Grimm."

"Or another crazy group like Black Claw trying to take over" Nick said with a worried look.

Rosalee sighed "I think for now, we need to make sure we stay close. If there's one thing we've learned, divided we fall."


	5. Man bites dog

Zombies, Nick Burkhart

Chapter 5

Man bites dog

2k words 10/23/20 r1

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Hank and Wu stared at the huge bulletin board through red, bloodshot, coffee-soaked eyes. Post-it notes, pictures, notes, surveillence photos, snitch interviews, and timelines dotted the Portland map. "Wu, I don't get it! Either this is the best, black, covert operation we've ever run up against, or it's some incredibly unlucky coincidence."

Wu slowly looked up through droopy, bleary eyes "I don't know, The Royals have nothing going on, HW knows nothing, none of the informants in the local hate groups or gangs know anything. Maybe it really is nothing?"

"It can't be nothing. It's never just nothing."

"What about that Chupacabra thing? That turned out to be a coyotal who got a bad infection from a mosquito bite."

"Yeah, but this is nearly 100 people! What are we missing."

Exhausted Nick and Adalind came out. A weary Nick looked at Hank "Nothing useful. Just a guy who got bit." Adalind handed Hank a post it note to add to their board.

Hank looked at it, then rubbed his eyes "Is this date right?"

"Yeah, that's what he told us."

"It's a full ten days earlier than the next one."

"Huh? What happened then."

"That was the day of the crazy protest where you got shot and Wu and I got stabbed."

Nick rubbed his eyes "Adalind, remember the one where you thought I was dead, but I was in Zombie mode?"

Adalind sipped now-cold, bitter, coffee, scowled at the cup, then yawned. "How could I forget? Diana and I were up nearly all night long reassembling you guys. They dragged you in stone gray, ice cold, no pulse, no breathing, and a bullet hole in your chest. I thought you were dead. I went to get your ancient, magic staff. You stood up, and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. Beer poured back out the bullet hole every time you took a swig. It was crazy, and how in the world did you get that big chunk gnawed out of your arm."

"I got bit?"

"You don't remember that?"

"No. I was trying to get Hank and Wu back here after they got stabbed."

Adalind rolled her weary eyes and smirked "Typical Grimm, you don't even notice when you get shot or some nut bites a chunk out of your arm."

Wu looked up "Nick got bit? Did the same zombie bite Nick and this guy? Does it back us up another two weeks?"

Adalind looked down at her notes, confused "He said he bit somebody."

"Is he the source?"

"He said he wasn't infected then. He went to the protest, then got sick the next day."

Hank's head bobbed, he snorted back awake, and looked up. "I gotta get a couple hours sleep. None of this makes any sense to me. I was at that protest, every single cop in Portland was there. There were no zombies, unless they were hiding in the crowd."

Adalind looked up "I'm too tired to crawl this guy's brain and find out what he really knows."

"Let's get a couple hours sleep, a hot shower, and circle back around with a fresh set of eyes."

Adalind slumped down into the couch next to Nick, leaned back, snuggled her head into his shoulder, and fell asleep before her shoes fell off.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Rosalee looked up from her dictation at Hexen-Elizabeth's mummified witch corpse reading the zombie book through the bloodshot eyes of a borrowed zombie. _Eight years ago I would have run out of here screaming at the sight. Now, there's no one I would rather work with._

She looked down at the instructions, notes, and sketches copied out of the ancient book. Somehow, it looked so familiar, yet there was something different about it.

Elizabeth paused "Rosalee, can you get a knife? I need to test his blood to find out what's actually going on inside him."

Rosalee stood up and stretched, found the knife, and stropped it's edge. She heard Elizabeth scold the silent zombie. "Well, of course, your blood. How do you suppose I'm going to figure out what's going on? Her blood won't do us any good, now will it? It won't hurt too much. No, you'll be fine, we'll patch you up. Hungry? For what? Mexican? Well, that does sound good."

Rosalee chuckled _Who knew_ _Zombies loved Mexican food as much as they do._ Soon she drove off to collect take out Mexican while Elizabeth prepared to do some "blood testing."

She returned to find Elizabeth with her finger in a hole in the zombie's arm while chiding him. The ancient desiccated witch corpse spit into the trash can "Bleach! What, do you live on, a diet of raw onions and garlic or something? My gosh! Are you trying to ward off vampires? Antioxidants? So how much raw garlic do you eat a day? Really? That much? Well, it didn't seem to help you did it now my dear? We're going to have to talk about your diet once we fix you up."

Rosalee chuckled "Mexican is here!" and she doled out the lunches. "Did you figure out what's going on with the zombie?"

Now-normal Elizabeth dipped a chip into some fresh guacamole and slid the handwritten notes over to Rosalee. "Al's blood is this third type zombie here."

"I knew this seemed so familiar." She got up and found the book "Here, look, it's like a blood modification of this Cracher-Mortel toxin."

Elizabeth nodded "Exactly, it's clearly not viral. It's like somehow, his body's immune system went into overdrive and made his endocrine system produce zombie toxins." Elizabeth stared off into space in thought while she chewed her burrito. "I think we can boost your remedy and modify it for some temporary immune suppression. That should clear this up."

Rosalee scooped up some guac on her chips and smiled, savoring the flavor "We sorted out an aerosol version of that remedy a few years back, when Nick got infected. Do you think we can use that? We can treat many people with one batch that way."

Elizabeth read through Rosalee's old notes and smiled "You would make a first rate witch, my dear. I think we can easily modify this and we'll be off to the races. We'll test it on Al here to make sure we get the dosing correct."

Zombie Al looked up, slowly chewing his tamales and stared at Elizabeth. She rolled her eyes at him and laughed "You big baby, of course you'll be fine. Hospital? Regular doctors have no idea what to do with zombies, that's why you're here with us. We'll get you sorted out and then we'll fix up the ones at the hospital."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Three days later the zombie outbreak evaporated as quickly as it developed. Rosalee and Elizabeth's remedy cured all the remaining zombies. The people returned to their normal lives, albeit with a large section of their recent memory wiped clean. Hexenbiests don't send folks home suffering terrors of witch corpses, zombie attacks, or girls with purple eyes blowing up their skulls.

Now, Nick and Hank reviewed the last of the paperwork at the precinct. They leaned back in their old, heavily worn desk chairs and nursed hot cups of three-hour old, stale, burnt, police precinct coffee.

"I can't believe that protestor guy actually bit you and infected himself. I mean what sort of a moron bites a zombie on purpose? Don't they watch movies?" Hank laughed at Nick. "Did you ever get any explanation of why he bit you?"

"Nope, none at all. He apparently bit me when I went back in to get Wu after he got stabbed. That was after I got shot, and after I dragged you out when you got stabbed. I never even knew I got bit. We were too busy dodging flame throwers, bricks, and molotov cocktails. Adalind and Diana are so used to just fixing us up after riots that they don't even ask questions anymore."

"Was he Wesen?"

"Nope, just an idiot."

"Seriously, no connections to anything?"

"Adalind searched his brain pretty well. He's just some guy who went completely stupid at a protest."

"Did you ever find out what he was protesting?"

"He wasn't actually part of the political protest. It was a Tuesday and Don Julio's ran out of pork tamales. The guy before him in line got the last one. Somebody pushed him out of the restaurant line, into the crowd, and I guess he went nuts."

Hank slowly slurped the bitter coffee, pursed his lips, and wrinkled his brow "Man, I should have made a fresh pot. Ugh! So this guy bit a cop and singlehandedly kicked off a Zombie outbreak over tamales?"

"You have to admit, those are the best tamales in the Pacific Northwest." Nick laughed "But at least there's a silver lining. Guess who's permanently off Riot Duty. I got a 'Medical waiver.' Read it and weep!" He smirked as he slid the paperwork towards Hank.

"You scoundrel! Medical waiver my big fat butt! Maybe I need to bite you."

"Hey now, nobody bites me like that" Nick winked at Hank "except Adalind."

"Ok, so how in the world did you get a doctor to sign off on a medical waiver? You are the most physically fit person on the entire force. And you can get shot and still drive home."

"Renard got stuck with all the paperwork for the zombies Diana blew the heads off, so he got Adalind to witch one of the doctors."

Hank laughed "She's pretty persuasive when she wants to be."

Nick slurped his coffee and grinned.

Hank sighed a heavy sigh "I still liked the zombies a lot better than the people."

"Yeah, I know, everybody did. Turns out they were completely immune to COVID - so the outbreak numbers went way down."

"And there's a fresh outbreak now that they are cured."

"Murders are back up too. Turns out zombies are pretty durable, and they don't really use guns."

"I was starting to like having Fridays off."

"You and me both."

"So how come Adalind and the kids didn't have any issues with turning into zombies from all the blood and guts?"

Nick shrugged "I don't know, I guess Hexenbiests are immune."

"And what about the rest of us?"

"Rosalee said it's not viral, it's some sort of weird autoimmune response that effects the endocrine system. It hasn't been a problem for the last eight years. Think about all the times we've dragged home mostly dead or actually dead, had Diana, Adalind, and Elizabeth's witch hands rummaging around, to fix us up, and somehow nobody got infected. Apparently you can only get it via blood contact when I'm in zombie mode."

"Oh, ok, yeah, you don't really bleed in zombie mode do you. How in the heck did that guy bite you hard enough to end up zombifying himself?"

Nick shrugged.

Wu walked up "Hey Captain Zombie, you just had to go cure them didn't you? Well, guess what, we got a body."

Hank smirked "Wu, get a load of this! Nick's off riot duty. Somehow, he managed to get himself a 'Medical' waiver."

"You dirty rotten scoundrel! So you got off riot duty because you can turn into a zombie! Maybe I need to bite you."

Nick laughed and rolled his eyes "'Doctor's orders!' Nobody bites me."

Wu rolled his eyes "Let me see that paperwork!"

"Hey, I'm the one with the 'Medical Condition' whose willing to make difficult sacrifices for the people of this fine city. "

Wu couldn't hold back his laughter at the paperwork "Greater good of Portland? Endocrine condition my butt! How did you get an actual doctor to sign this?"

Hank laughed "Renard got Adalind to witch the doctor."

Nick winked at them and sighed "So, about that body?"

Hank smirked "Wesen?"

Wu handed Nick back his medical waiver, then laid the folder on Hank's desk "It sure ain't a zombie."

"Well, the Zombie thing was nice while it lasted."

"Yep."


End file.
